Marin candlelight vigils for Connecticut victims: 'We're here for those children and our children'

Candles and home made signs were brought by people from all over Marin as they came together for a vigil to mourn the tragedy in Connecticut at town park in Fairfax, Calif. Saturday, December 15, 2012. (Special to the IJ/James Cacciatore)
James Cacciatore

ON a cold, damp, somber gray morning, a sorrowful group gathered on Saturday under the redwood trees of Bolinas Park in Fairfax, lit candles, formed a circle, joined hands and sang and prayed for the 26 victims — 20 of them children — who were shot to death Friday at an elementary school in picturesque Newtown, Conn.

"We feel like we want to do something," said Jeanne Thompson, a retired Fairfax teacher, who came to the gathering with her husband, Dick. "Something like this affects everyone. We're here for those children and our children."

Roni Krouzman, a 35-year-old business consultant, organized the vigil, announcing it on Facebook.

"Like everybody, when I first heard I was totally shocked, then I cried and then I thought I wanted to do something and that other people would want to come together around this," he said. "At a time like this, when people are overwhelmed with grief, there's strength and there's healing and maybe little seeds of hope when we come together."

About 35 people attended the vigil, assembling in the park and then walking in a slow procession through Fairfax, a small town someone said was not unlike wooded Newtown, Conn., where 20-year-old Adam Lanza fired semi-automatic handguns Friday morning in a pair of classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"This is such an important time for all of us to stop and be thankful for our beautiful children and our teachers, to take a moment and send our prayers to all the families in Connecticut and across the country, because there's not a single community untouched by what has happened," said Mary Jane Burke, Marin County Superintendent of Schools, her voice breaking with emotion. "I want you to know that our schools are working hard to get information out to families on how to talk to their kids."

Some of those who attended carried signs decrying gun violence. Krouzman quoted Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund.

"She said, 'Why in the world do we regulate teddy bears and toy guns and not real guns?,'" he said. "But it's more than guns. It's a culture gone totally awry. It's violence, it's video games, it's lack of mental health services, it's cuts to everything that keeps the social fabric together. And the social fabric seems to be tearing more and more. But I have to believe that when we come together like this, our grief and our love is a powerful thing to share with the world."

On Friday night, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin organized an interfaith candlelight vigil at San Rafael's Courthouse Square "in honor and remembrance for all the lives impacted by the violence in Newtown, Conn."

About 35 people came together around an altar with flowers and a sign that said, "Sandy Hook Elementary, we remember."

"It was a very moving experience," said the congregations's Rev. Dara Olandt.